Would You Rather…

As a blogger, we get pitched a LOT from companies/organizations/spammers and all kinds of scammers. Everyone vying for your attention in hopes you open up their emails andshare all their amazing words with your readers. (Yes, that was sarcasm)

99.98% of them get deleted.

But, every now and then you get a fun one like I’m about to share with you today :) One that fits with your general theme of your website, and even more importantly one that’s fun, entertaining, and promotes a good cause at the end of the day.

For those of you who’s been reading this site for a while, you may recall us doing a Would You Rather series over the years. Which got crazier and crazier of the years too :) We haven’t done one in quite some time, so this email I got was even more accepted with open arms.

The Initiative

In a nutshell, DoSomething.org has partnered with H&R Block Dollars and Sense program “to create a mobile experience challenging young people to choose between situations penny pinchers often find themselves in to save money.” Which “will be followed by action steps to get teens to start being smart about their financial future, and tips for how to start saving for their future.”

If you’re a teen reading this right now, text START to 38383 and start playing/learning right away :) And if you’re an adult reading this, do the same but not ’till you’re done with this article ;)

Here are some of the reasons this is important btw:

68 percent of high school and college students say they have never had a meaningful conversation with their parents about personal finance.

More than 3 in 4 students feel that they don’t know enough about personal finances.

According to DoSomething.org’s National Survey: The top concern for people who volunteer is paying for college. For all young people, it’s “having enough money.”

Young people want to know about money but don’t really know where to turn. They’re tired of surveys and calculators that instill more fear and insecurity about an issue that they’re already anxious about.

Fair enough… We as a society can use as much help as we can get to better help our youth – no doubt about it. And especially where finances are involved. (I was just having lunch with a 50+ y/o friend, and we were talking about how easy it is for pretty much anyone to take out debt compared to “back in the day” before the rampant use of credit cards and loans/etc. Back when mortgage rates were over 17%! Yikes!)

The Would You Rather Game

Now that I’ve done my part getting the word out, I thought we’d partake in the fun and play along ourselves :) I texted “Start” to 38383, and here was the first question I was prompted to answer:

Q1: What would you rather do to save $$? A) Share your spring break hotel room w/ ur entire extended family OR B) not go on spring break.

A! Haha… all day, every day! Save money AND get to have fun :) Though, I reckon it would be pretty harsh coming back late at night half/full drunk and never hearing the end of it from your family. And/or waking up the next morning in the condition you’d be in… But they’d know what you were doing on Spring Break anyways, so it’s not *that* bad. Plus it’s not like you wouldn’t be sharing it anyways to save money, you’re just swapping out friends for family. How bad can it get? ;)

I then continued to play along:

Q2: To make $$, would you rather A) Be Lindsay Lohan’s personal ass’t for a month, OR B) Wash the Dallas Cowboys laundry for a month?

A!!!! ZOMG!!! Laundry aside, what self-respecting Redskins fan would EVER come close to doing something nice for the Cowboys?? That’s fan club suicide right there! ;) Plus, you know you’d be out wining and dining w/ Miss Lohan too outside of cleaning up any messes… You at least have a shot of having fun vs being stuck in a smelly ol’ basement cleaning jerseys all day long, ick… I wouldn’t even do that for my Redskins! (Okay, actually I would, but that wasn’t the question ;))

Q3: Would you rather save $$ by A) not having a washing machine for a month OR B) not having a dishwasher for a month?

B, hands down. Ain’t nobody got time to hand wash baby clothes 3x a week! I can live with some dirty dishes and/or using the same few day in and day out…

Q4: Would you rather A) walk a mile barefoot to school every day OR B) have your mom drop you off with a big kiss every morning?

Haha… B. I’ve got no shame in showing some mama love ;) Unless there were Fitbits back in the day when I was in school… In that case I’d walk and rack up all them steps every day! (BTW, would this be the same as walking to “work” for us old guys and getting dropped off/kissed by our wives? ;))

After the initial 4 questions, you can then continue on to play more by sharing the game with a friend (clever, clever marketers!), or go straight to the money tips by texting in “TIPS.”

I texted in TIPS:

Going on spring break? Create a travel budget so you come back from vacation with happiness and a tan, rather than regret.

Establish a savings habit and stick to it. Once you get paid, pay off your bills first before buying anything else.

Avoid buying on impulse. Wait at least a week before making pricey purchases to ensure you really want the item.

Nice and solid advice, okay… I feel like it would be better to put hard numbers/percentages in there (like, maybe 10% or 20% for #2?) but regardless it’s quality information. Let’s just hope it sinks in!

Your Turn Now :)

If you’re an adult and still reading this, harken back to the good ol’ days and answer these 4 “would your rathers” above yourself :) Or just text in and play and get a bunch of other questions too – I think maybe they’re randomized?

Then come back here and share your answers below! I’m really curious about your answer to the Dallas Cowboys one ;) Feel free to drop your own advice to our wee lads reading as well. Anyone who’s trying to manage their money under 21 are smart as hell in my book. I didn’t start until almost 30!

————PS: Want more? Check out our very own Would You Rather Marathon.PPS: Here were some of the results from last year’s campaign, haha…

86% of teens would rather share a car with their grandma than share a cell phone with their mom

78% of teens would rather light their house with candles than flush their toilet only once a day

69% of teens would rather eat ramen every day for a month, then eat tuna every day for a month

52% of teens would rather share a bar of soap with 20 people than share a toothbrush with their brother

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the blog!

I end up with the same answers as you EXCEPT – as a Patriots fan, if you change the Cowboys to the J-E-T-S and let me pick the month I’d happily choose washing their laundry… I imagine it might be a little tough to beat my Pats if your skivvies “accidentally” shrink in the laundry ;)

Toss in the ability to wear a Go Pro with Lohan and the pendulum swings back to the other side.

Ha! Would I rather live without a dishwasher or a washing machine? Here in NYC, the answer for me is “both”. Now of course, we do have laundromats that we go to, but I handwash things from time to time, just to save the trip.

As a fellow Redskins fan, I have to agree with you on the Cowboys question, even though being Lilo’s personal assistant could get VERY demanding and strange (I’m thinking Devil Wears Prada style). Wow, I just confirmed my love of sports and displayed some knowledge of The Devil Wears Prada all in one sentence. Neat!

I completely agree with this comment: “Anyone who’s trying to manage their money under 21 are smart as hell in my book.”

These young money managers are those who never get behind on their finances! They never have to dig themselves out of a post-grad debt hole!!!

There are kids out their dominating their their finances and too few resources to help them! Heck, that’s why I started my blog. If you are an intelligent teen reading this article, my Linky link up top! ;)

There can never be too many blogs out there keeping it real! we all relate to each others’ stories differently, and are all in different phases too, so I hope people DO click over and learn more about yours. Congrats on getting it up and out the door!

Whoa those are some interesting (and sad) facts about personal finance for teens! I guess I kind of already had a general idea of some of them. (That’s why I started writing about personal finance on my running blog…because it’s something most people don’t talk about). I love this idea! The funniest thing is that I’ve done some of those things to save money/because of circumstances! For example, I was in China for 2 months with no washing machine, and hand washed my clothes with body soap in the bathroom sink!

All my “spring breaks” were with my family. They were the nicest vacations I ever went on (I can’t afford that kind of luxury), even if I did have to room with my 4 brothers and sisters. I still managed to have a tryst with one of the people who worked at the resort we went to one year though ;)

Harken back?! PSHHHHH I totally still play this game! :P I also already don’t have a dishwasher or a laundry machine….but if I could pick I’d rather have the washing machine instead of having to go outside to do laundry. I’d probably pick Dallas Cowboy laundry over being LiLo’s assistant because it would likely be less dirty.

I really do love this campaign though and think it’s a great way to get the awareness about finance out there in a fun, thought-provoking way.

My answers are:
A
B, I rather do some hard work with a possible promotion within the team, instead of getting lindsays coffee everyday. I always thought it would be cool to work for an NBA or Football team. My two favorite sports.
B
B
Good luck teens, you have it better than most of us had it back in the days. When companies could care less to inform us on PF tips.

I use to work for an NFL team and spent a ton of time in the locker room on game days and at the teams practice facility in the equipment room where they do the laundry. Some of the best times ever, sitting around listening to stories about players and coaches waiting for the laundry to finish.

Love the mindset too – just started asking myself the same when out buying stuff (which, is like hardly ever). I’m now even asking myself what it would be like to change into a stay at home dad and save $$$ on daycare (and, possibly, retire earlier). However it doesn’t work as well since I’m currently the only one bringing home income at the moment, haha… One day though!

Your point about lack of financial education in our schools is all too true. We are fortunate that we have three 20 somethings who are all financially well grounded but sadly not always the case. The local bank branch manager offered to assist our high school in this regard and when I communicated her offer the administration rejected it. Made me shake my head in disgust and amazement.

1. Yes to Spring Break – love to travel on the cheap. More people = more stories = more memories (bad stories turn into funny stories over time…)
2. No to dirty laundry – yuk, especially football…those uniforms stink! How bad can Lohan be anyway?
3. No dish washer all the way – much easier to deal with dishes than dirty clothes.
4. Barefoot? Not in March in Canada. It’s still winter up here! Unless I can go barefoot IN MY SORELS, I’ll go for the embarrassment.

Boy, do I wish something like this existed back when I was in high school / undergrad. I’m just now starting to get a grip on understanding my finances at 29… and that’s with a mountain of student loan debt.

Hum…DECISIONS!
I’ll skip Spring Break, no way no how could I stand vacationing with the whole extended family. For starters, we could fill up a whole cruise ship with family alone and the fun to annoying ratio is just way too low.
I love doing laundry (hi, I’m a freak) but I have this feeling that I could totally reform LiLo during a month with her. Or she would drive me insane but I would have gone nutters trying to fight the good fight!
We have a dishwasher but we still wash by hand since we have fewer dishes than laundry; add a hypothetical baby in that hypothetical mix and heck NO I wouldn’t choose a broken washer.
I miss my mama, she could drop me off every morning no problem. Heck, I had my dad drop me off at the train station every day for FIVE YEARS after college, so I didn’t have to buy him a second car, he’d just use mine during the day. Merit Points Please!

Hey! I hand-washed all our laundry — including baby clothes and cloth diapers — for about 16 months when I was a broke single mom.
I *made* time for it — because I had no other options. :-(
That said, I’m glad you and Mrs. J$ don’t have to do this because yep, it’s pretty tiring and your hands smell like Clorox all the time. (Could be worse, though, given what the CLOROX was taking care of…eeewwww…..)
P.S. I still don’t use the dishwasher. My partner makes sure we run it at least once a month because moving parts. If it weren’t for him, I’d never touch the thing. When I lived in Seattle I used the dishwasher for canning-jar storage. Yep, I’m old-school. Or maybe just old.

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I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page